Tabula scores $108 million to bring cheap, programmable chips to the masses

If you were to pry open your laptop, microwave or TV you'd find they're all loaded with an array of highly-specialized silicon. Designing, manufacturing, or just purchasing these chips is a major cost for electronics makers. Semiconductor company Tabula, which just secured $108 million in funding to help bring its 3PLD ABAX reprogrammable chips to market, hopes to make these dedicated components a thing of the past. Compared to similarly customizable FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), Tabula's chips are cheaper, smaller, and faster. This magic trifecta of attributes could put programmable logic into consumer products like HDTVs and may one day allow for hardware to be updated over the internet the way software is now. However, the immediate promise is being able to use the same chip for multiple purposes across several products. That should drive down costs -- and there's no way to make consumers happier than by slashing prices. Full PR and video after the break.

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Tabula Secures $108 Million in the Largest Round Awarded to a Private Semiconductor Company Over the Last Decade
Funding to Support Rapid Customer Adoption of the Industry's First 3D Programmable Logic Devices

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Tabula announces completion of 40nm family roll-out with the recent introduction of Stylus, the first software suite in the PLD industry made available in a cloud computing environment.
MOS Logic represents the fastest growing sector and greatest market opportunity in the semiconductor industry. From 1999 through 2010, MOS Logic sales increased from $16.5 billion to $59.3 billion, a CAGR of 12.3%, according to Semico Research.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 28, 2011- Tabula, Inc., a privately held fabless semiconductor company and developer of the ABAX family of 3D Programmable Logic Devices (3PLDs), today announced it has secured $108 million in Series D funding. Tabula will use the new capital to accelerate production of their 3PLD ABAX product family, expand customer and partner support infrastructures, and further next-generation product development to extend their market leadership in the rapidly growing programmable logic sector. The financing was led by Crosslink Capital and DAG Ventures. Existing investors, Balderton Capital, Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Integral Capital, and NEA also participated in this round.

"The programmable logic market is seeing tremendous growth driven by the build out of the telecommunications infrastructure. This infrastructure build is necessary to keep pace with the global demand for more bandwidth to support smartphone usage for accessing data and video online." said Dennis Segers, CEO of Tabula. "This funding represents a resounding validation of our breakthrough Spacetime 3D programmable logic technology and a vote of confidence for the Tabula team in its ability to bring about both technological innovation as well as business innovation to customers. We will continue to build on our customer momentum by increasing volume shipments of our ABAX 3PLD product family. With the disruption our Spacetime architecture is bringing to the market, we will take programmable devices where they have never gone before and intend on becoming a global semiconductor market leader."

Our 3D programmable logic devices – the industry's first – achieve unprecedented price/performance because of our breakthrough architecture, enabling customers across the breadth of electronic products to use high-capability programmable chips in production volumes for the first time. It is gratifying to see our chips and software in customers' hands, and our Spacetime technology is delivering on its promise in the marketplace. Today's enormous infusion of capital provides us with the remaining ingredient to transform the electronics industry," notes Steve Teig, Founder and CTO of Tabula.

"Tabula's Spacetime technology addresses the problems at the heart of the programmable logic market today by delivering unprecedented capabilities at unmatched cost points compared to FPGAs." said Gary Hromadko, Venture Partner of Crosslink Capital. "Tabula represents the largest market opportunity of any private semiconductor company in the industry today. This new infusion of capital will allow Tabula to aggressively execute on their customer adoption and product development plans."

Committed to bringing business and technology innovation to the semiconductor industry, Tabula recently completed the roll-out of its 40nm ABAX family of 3PLDs supported by the Stylus development software. Stylus delivers Spacetime's 3D Architecture breakthrough price/performance advantages to ASIC and FPGA designers, all while maintaining a familiar design flow. The first design software suite in the PLD industry made available in the cloud, Stylus eliminates IT hassle while enabling real-time, on-site-like, technical support.

"Tabula is well positioned to capitalize on the growing migration of ASIC and ASSP towards programmable logic devices." said Dave Strohm, Partner of Greylock Partners. "With a proven world class management team, products that are leading in a high-growth PLD market and shipping to a growing list of Tier 1 customers, this round of funding will help drive their customer expansion and increase their technological lead. We look forward to their continued success."

"Tabula is a visionary company with key factors critical in achieving success; an unbounded $70B market opportunity, a breakthrough technology and a proven management team." said Bruce Dunlevie, General Partner of Benchmark Capital. "We look forward to supporting them in their next stage of growth as we believe they will become a clear and dominant leader in the semiconductor industry with unstoppable force."

Industry veterans in the analyst and editorial community have weighed in on how Tabula's technological and business disruption will impact the semiconductor industry. Please visit www.tabula.com for in-depth commentary.

About Tabula
Tabula is a privately held fabless semiconductor company developing 3D Programmable Logic Devices. Its ABAX family of 3PLDs, based on Tabula's patented Spacetime architecture, and supported by its Stylus development software, sets new density, performance, and affordability benchmarks for programmable logic, memory, and signal processing. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Tabula has assembled a leadership team consisting of industry veterans and successful entrepreneurs. The company is backed by top-tier investors with a long-term view toward enduring market leadership.